Media montage: Difficult dialogues about service learning: Embrace the messiness
✍ Scribed by S. Mei-Yen Hui
- Book ID
- 101401581
- Publisher
- John Wiley and Sons
- Year
- 2009
- Weight
- 145 KB
- Volume
- 14
- Category
- Article
- ISSN
- 1086-4822
- DOI
- 10.1002/abc.304
No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.
✦ Synopsis
HEn i WAS graduate coordinator for the office of Community service-learning's alternative Breaks (aB) program at the university of maryland-College park, i had the privilege of working with undergraduate student trip leaders as they researched, planned, and coordinated weeklong service-learning immersion trips in which students would travel to locations across the country and the world in order to focus on various social issues. one of the trip leaders, Kevin, who was a senior pre-med student, came to me early in the fall 2008 semester with questions about how to make sense of the intricacies, power differences, and implications of engaging in service learning. one of his e-mails highlights his concerns:
Kevin: I've come to a point of dissonance with myself about service. I am having a really difficult time figuring out what service really is, and even though I've answered the question many times in applications I still can't really come to a conclusion. Before I kind of ignored this dissonance but I realized as a trip leader I need to be sure of what I am doing, and I need to honestly answer: What is service-learning? And what does "good" service look like?
Kevin and i met several times to grapple with the complexities of service learning, challenge each other, and learn from each other. in this article, i use my exchanges with Kevin to explore the possibilities